Educational Programs
This page is a listing of resources for our outreach and continuing education programs. There are a wide varitey of programs, outreach materials, and lesson plans for the public to benefit from.
Grandmother Marguerite’s Trunk is an outreach program that brings Louisiana history to you with a 1-hour interactive program. A museum representative, dressed in accurate period costume, brings a trunk filled with artifacts from the 19th century to your classroom, community center, or retirement home to present one of the four following themes: An 1880’s Farm Family, Daily Life in the Civil War, A New Dress: 1800’s Clothing, or Nineteenth Century Pastimes. This program was inspired by the late Marguerite Genre, one of the founders of the West Baton Rouge Historical Association and West Baton Rouge Museum. She envisioned a traveling educational program utilizing artifacts to recall and commemorate rural family life in south Louisiana. Grandmother Marguerite’s Trunk was developed by the educators at the West Baton Rouge Museum as a curriculum relevant program intended to enhance learning through hands-on activities. The program has reached over 30,000 learners to-date!Shedule a visit from Grandmother Marguerite’s Trunk by calling the West Baton Rouge Museum at (225) 336-2422 ext.17. A program fee of $40, payable by cash or check made out to the West Baton Rouge Museum is required for bookings outside West Baton Rouge Parish. The program is free to groups and schools within West Baton Rouge Parish. Presentations are designed for 30 or fewer students. (Additional fee assessed for student groups of more than 30). Adult groups may be larger than 30.
The West Baton Rouge Museum has a new field trip experience designed especially for children ages 3 to 6 years old. The program S is for Sugar is a 90-minute, hands-on, fun- filled adventure for kids to learn about farming, letters, and sugar!
Two friendly puppets, Sweetie Pie and Sugar Guy, lead kids through activities at carefully selected stops in the museum, at the sugar cane patch, and in a late 19th century historic sugar plantation building where the kids will engage in writing, saying and learning about the letter “S” and planting sugar cane in the ground just like Louisiana farmers! They will enjoy a shape matching game and get some easy exercise when they help squeeze cane juice from cane.
Children will come away knowing that sugar is made from plant called sugar cane, that sugar cane comes from farms, and best of all that sugar makes things sweet!
Field trip planners and educators can make reservations throughout the year. S is for Sugar is available Tuesdays through Fridays. The program is free to all West Baton Rouge Parish groups and Head Start Programs. Out-of-Parish admission is $2 per student. To make reservations and for more information please call (225) 336-2422 x 18.
You can click here for the S is for Sugar post-visit activities and coloring sheets. (PDF)
National History Day (NHD) is a year-long academic program and competition for students in grades 6-12. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. The theme for 2012 is Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries.
The West Baton Rouge Museum's 2012 Teachers Institute explored the state's path to statehood through field trips, lectures, hands-on colonial cooking and crafts, music and lesson plans. The three-day Teachers Institute, in its sixth year and endorsed by the West Baton Rouge Parish Schools, was held July 17, 18, 19, 2012. Each participating teacher received 21 CLU credits, $100 stipend (made possible by the West Baton Rouge Historical Association), classroom resources, free admission and lunch daily.
These are projects created by teachers who attended the Institute:
A Taste of Louisiana by Rita Anderson-Jones
A Cultural Gumbo: The People of the Atchafalaya by Clara Staten Billips
Louisiana Bicentennial by Eureka Broussard
Romeo and Juliet or Evangeline? by Jill Durbin
Louisiana Cultures by Britney Falcon
Les Acadiens by Gretchen Hurst
Acanians in St. Martinville by Wendy Johnson
Louisiana Culture by Danielle Jordan
Louisiana Culture by Jenna Laiche
Acadians of Louisiana by Azura Lanoue
Louisiana Art and Music by Juanita Nelson
Louisiana: A Cultural Melting Pot by Sharon Nelson
The theme for this Institute was "Louisiana and the Civil War" It is required of all teachers who attend the institute, in order to earn their CLU's, to generate a lesson plan or another project which will be benifical both to their classroom and to the West Baton Rouge Museum. Below are the lesson plans generated by teachers who attended the Institute in 2011.
The theme for this Institute was "The River: Friend or Foe?" Below are the lesson plans generated by teachers who attended the Institute. Please click on the title to download the lesson plan.
Ten States Along the Mississippi by Angela Silvan - Word Document
Mississippi River by Emily Weathers - Word Document
Atchafalaya Heritage Area by Jacqueline Bell - Word Document
The Mississippi River and it's Tributaries by Jeffery Dugan - Word Document
The River as a Friend by Maria Zeledon - Word Document
Plantations and Transportation by Michelle Hardy - Word Document
The Great Flood of 1927 on the Mississippi River by Natash Tackno - Word Document
River Careers Study by Pam Collins Byrd - Word Document
Engagement Plan for Non-Teachers by Richard Taylor - Word Document
Gulf Coast Erosion by Tawanda Schofield - Word Document
The theme for this Institute was "" It is required of all teachers who attend the institute, in order to earn their CLU's, to generate a lesson plan or another project which will be benifical both to their classroom and to the West Baton Rouge Museum. Below are the lesson plans generated by teachers who attended the Institute in 2009.
The theme for this Institute was "" It is required of all teachers who attend the institute, in order to earn their CLU's, to generate a lesson plan or another project which will be benifical both to their classroom and to the West Baton Rouge Museum. Below are the lesson plans generated by teachers who attended the Institute in 2008.
The theme for this Institute was "The Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase" It is required of all teachers who attend the institute, in order to earn their CLU's, to generate a lesson plan or another project which will be beneficial both to their classroom and to the West Baton Rouge Museum. Below are the lesson plans generated by teachers who attended the Institute in 2004.
Click here to download these Lesson Plans.
As an educational supplement, we are happy to provide the full text of all 200 panels which make up the body of the exhibit.
Download Here (PDF, 7.96 mb)
